NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY
Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of The Illinois Federation for Right to Life. They are presented only for your information.
US Bishop Who Says Priests Should Deny Communion to Abortion Backers Resigns
Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the early retirement of a U.S. bishop who has denounced nuns for sponsoring lectures by gay-rights advocates and directed priests to deny communion to abortion backers, the Vatican said Monday. The brief announcement, keeping to Vatican tradition, did not say why the staunchly conservative Monsignor Joseph Martino, 63, Bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania, had submitted his resignation. He took up the post in 2003.
Click here for the full article.
Montana Court to Weigh In on Assisted Suicide Case
The state's highest court on Wednesday will take up Robert Baxter's claim that a doctor's refusal to help him die violated his rights under Montana’s Constitution -- and lawyers on both sides say the chances are good that he will prevail. Washington and Oregon allow physicians to help terminally ill people hasten their deaths, but in those states the laws were approved by voters in statewide referendums, and neither state’s highest court has examined the issue of a constitutional right to die. In Montana, the question will be decided by the seven-member State Supreme Court. A lower-court judge ruled in Mr. Baxter's favor last December -- on the very day Mr. Baxter died -- and the State of Montana appealed the ruling.
Click here for the full article.
'The Disposition Decision' -- What to Do With the Embryos?
For most Americans, the moral status of the human embryo is a question that seems quite remote. Even as hundreds of thousands of "excess" human embryos are now stored in American fertility clinics and laboratories, to most Americans these frozen embryos are out of sight and out of mind. Thus, one of the most important moral challenges of our day remains largely off the screen of our national discourse. The issue cannot remain out of sight or out of mind for long.
Click here for the full article.
A push for abstinence over abortion availability
Pro-lifers in a Texas town are fighting the opening of another Planned Parenthood abortion facility.
Nueces County, with a population of over 313,000, features the county seat of Corpus Christi. Pro-lifers are focusing on a program to deal with teen pregnancy rates and hoping funds will not go toward opening a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. According to Jonathan Saenz of Free Market Foundation, the abortuary's sex education programs increase intimate behavior and generate abortion business.
Click here for the full article.
Church cannot remain silent in face of threats against life, says Cardinal Rivera
The Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, has called Mexicans to rally to the defense of life from conception to natural death, a task which he called essential and one which the Church cannot remain silent about.
During his homily last Sunday, the cardinal urged Mexicans to defend life against every threat facing it.
“We are all aware of the diverse stages through which the human being passes, from the moment of conception until death. Jesus took on this process, illuminating human existence in all states of life,” he stated.
Click here for the full article.
